Madrid's pursuit of a 10th European crown appeared to gather momentum after they dismissed Galatasaray at home on Wednesday.

The finishing of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain put the last eight's outsiders Galatasaray firmly in their place, despite bold pre-match talk that they would take the game to the Mourinho's men.

The gulf in class was evident and Cristiano Ronaldo pulled away onto Mesut Ozil's through ball to net with a cool lob after only nine minutes, to become the tournament's leading scorer with nine goals.

Benzema slotted the ball inside Fernando Muslera's near post for the second after 29 minutes and substitute Higuain flicked a header into the top corner at a free-kick in the 73rd.

Galatasaray, backed by raucous support, rarely threatened but when they did keeper Diego Lopez was on hand for the hosts as they kept a first clean sheet of the competition.

"Real Madrid played a very good, balanced match," Mourinho said.

"The team worked very hard and to score an early goal makes all the difference. It changes the game."

Asked if he felt confident of progressing in Istanbul next Tuesday, Mourinho sounded a note of caution.

"I know the mentality of some their players and of their coach," he said. "They will look to do something historic. They need a miracle but I have enough experience in football to know miracles happen."

Galatasaray coach Fatih Terim had a dig at referee Svein Oddvar Moen saying he had influenced the result by failing to show cards and by waving away two penalty calls.

"The referee was scared of Real Madrid's name. He's not a referee for this level," Terim said. "If you can't see a penalty for handball, then he shouldn't be here.

"Everyone says penalty, but the referee - he says nothing. Real Madrid are the favourites for this tournament. It didn't happen for us. What can we do?

"Did he defeat us? No. He blew his whistle at some very interesting parts of the game. I haven't seen the penalty shouts, but everyone says it was a penalty.

"Real Madrid don't need referees, but when they don't see what is there, you don't get anywhere. He also gave lots of wrong decisions. However, referees aren't the subject of the conversation."

Terim was still honest about his team's shortcomings, however.

"Many of our players have a lot of experience but it is very hard playing in such a big stadium in front of so many people," he said.

"The difference in quality between the teams and the players is noticeable. I'm sure my players wanted to try things to change the game but they couldn't.